Poly playwriting competition — $1,000 in prizes!

Don't like the way multi-loves are usually treated in song and story?

Get serious and make your own.

Open Love NY is running a competition for new plays or musicals treating polyamory. From their press release:

Calling all playwrights! Open Love NY is sponsoring the Unchained Love Playwright Competition, seeking the best one-act and full-length plays about modern relationships. Total prizes: $1,000. Deadline to enter: December 15, 2013.

“The lives and loves of people who are polyamorous, genderqueer, kinky or other marginalized groups are often defined by an intentional journey of self-discovery between consenting adults, where honesty and open communication are the main currency in committed, loving relationships, not sexual or emotional exclusivity,” said Mischa Lin, who is producing the competition on behalf of Open Love NY. “For people who are constantly told that love only exists between two specific individuals, we want to create works that show a world of possibilities where lasting, sustainable love can include more than just traditional monogamy.”

A $750 cash prize will be awarded for the best full-length play, and $250 for the best one-act play.

For complete rules, visit openloveny.com/playwrights.html. Updates will be posted at olnyplay.blogspot.com.

Founded in 2009, Open Love NY supports a thriving community of more than 1,000 members with regular social and educational events, including Poly Cocktails and a discussion group featuring prominent guest speakers, both held monthly.

And there's more to entice any playwright! "Winning plays will be shopped to various theater companies to secure a staged reading/workshop and eventual full production, although production is not guaranteed." And, the winners and honorable-mentions will be scheduled for public readings.

Mischa writes,

Hi Alan,

So the background is, when we first formed Open Love NY back in 2009, one of the goals of the original leadership team was to promote the acceptance of polyamory through scholarly and artistic works. Since starting our monthly meetings in March 2010, we've grown from the original group of eight leaders to a membership of well over 1,000 people, and the time is ripe to put that scale to work.

For the past three years, I've been living in the heart of the Theater District in New York City, which has afforded me many opportunities to see plays and get involved with theater people. I've percolated the idea of working with my theater friends on a project for some time. When I stepped down as OLNY president last fall, I finally freed up some spare time to pursue this long-simmering interest. I'm very happy to say that we've already received almost 10 entries in less than a week since the contest was announced.

Noel Coward — how would you write Design for Living if you were doing it today? Jean-Peal Sartre — how would you do No Exit?

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